and, Paramount - releasing Shrek III here in May. As part of the tie-up, McDonalds will offer characters from these movies as

Happy Meal toys within McDonald's restaurants.

Smita Jatia, chief operating officer, McDonald's India - western and southern region said, Communications synergy between movie distributors and McDonald's translates into multiplied awareness levels whereby the distributors get access to our customers and push the film. We are looking at a 360 degree approach towards this co-branded tie-up and currently working out the logistical details required for a tie-up of this nature. There will be lot of in-store promotions and contests will be lined up to provide value addition to our consumers. Through the new promotions, we hope to increase footfalls by an additional 25% over previous summer. McDonalds India has nationally started with family promotions by giving out Lego toys as part of the Happy Meal programme.

Competitor, Dominos Pizza India - which is a master franchisee of US-based Dominos Pizza - is for the first time adopting franchisee model in India to widen their presence apart from setting up 50 new company-owned Dominos outlets at an investment of Rs 60 crore by March 2008. The number of Dominos outlets in India will grow from 135 to 185, Dev Amrateshi, chief marketing, Dominos Pizza India said. From April 1, 2007 onwards, we are nationally launching Fun Meal for four promotions at Rs 180. Thus, we hope to grow our market share from 42 to 46% within a year. Industry experts believe that with the growing demand by kids, young adults and parents, fast food consumption is expected to grow by about 15-20% between 2007-08.